1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a method for depositing silicon-containing materials, and more particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to chemical vapor deposition techniques for thermally depositing silicon based dielectric materials, such as silicon nitride, using photoexcitation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of silicon-containing films, such as silicon nitride, is a state of the art, front end process used during semiconductor device manufacturing. For example, in a thermal CVD process for depositing silicon nitride, thermal energy is utilized for breaking one or more feedstock chemicals, which includes a silicon precursor, to make a thin film of a silicon nitride on a substrate surface. Conventional thermal CVD of silicon-containing materials is typically performed in a batch furnace or in a single wafer deposition chamber operating at elevated temperatures typically in excess of 550 degrees Celsius. As device geometries shrink to enable faster integrated circuits, the thermal budget for deposited films must be reduced in order to obtain satisfactory processing results, good production yield and robust device performance. Although some thermal CVD processes for silicon-containing materials having deposition temperatures less than 550 degrees Celsius have been proposed, none have exhibited production worthiness suitable for large scale utilization in semiconductor device fabrication. More recently, atomic/alternating layer deposition (ALD) or cyclic layer deposition (CLD) methods have been developed for depositing silicon-containing films such as silicon nitride. While these methods have enabled a reduction in processing temperatures to about 550 degrees Celsius or less, film growth rates have been extremely low.
Thus, there is a need for an improved method of depositing silicon-containing materials, such as silicon nitride, at a temperature less than about 550 degrees Celsius with adequate deposition/growth rates.